From the monthly archives:

September 2010

Ford One-Ups Itself With Global Focus Launch

by Jason Falls · September 30, 2010

Ford Motor Company is arguably one of the most successful companies on the planet in terms of using social media marketing successfully. Like them or not, they listen, they react, they engage and they inspire with their efforts. And yeah, social media lead Scott Monty and I are friends, but that doesn’t mean I play favorites. Scott would probably tell you I pick on him more than pat him on the back.

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Partnership Marketing Now Means Sharing Your Audience

by Eric Brown · September 30, 2010

Partnership marketing has been around for a long time. It wasn’t uncommon for Bill Smith’s Plumbing Service to get ad dollars from a big brand such as Kohler for Yellow Page ads if in fact Bill Smiths Plumbing carried Kolher bath and kitchen plumbing fixtures. The ad sort of gave Bill Smith’s plumbing a leg up as being a quality contractor due to the brand association with Kohler. However, the ads were ads, one way marketing.

That model worked pretty well until consumers changed the direction of how they shop, or, more specifically, how they start their search for what they are shopping for. Channel Advisor states in a White Paper, How Consumers Shop Online:

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Social Media Marketing – A Tale of Two Potters

by Mark Dykeman · September 29, 2010

A hypothetical (but not that foreign) situation:

Bill is the greatest potter in the world. He uses magic power to mold the clay into whatever shape he wants just by staring at it. So, not only does he make the best pottery in the world, but the way he makes it is absolutely freaking amazing.

The power of social media marketing to build a business

Bill enjoyed decent pottery sales before his methods were known. But his profits multiplied by a factor of at least 1000 when people learned how he made it. Who wouldn’t want to see real live magic?

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The Secret Is In The Sauce

by Heather Rast · September 28, 2010

Think about your favorite restaurant.  That place you go when you have some extra time, maybe a little extra jingle.  Not the place you take the visiting in-laws (unless you actually like them, but then that would be an oxymoron), but the place you take your BFF or closest couple friends.  The guys who know how to complete your lame movie quotes or Seinfeld one-liners.

Why did you choose restaurant X?  What makes it special?

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The Missed Opportunity Of LinkedIn

by Jason Falls · September 27, 2010

I heard a lady say last week that she and her company had given up on LinkedIn. They started a group and it was going no where. She said the only people who were participating in the group were her competitors and frankly, her company wasn’t there to play with them. While I don’t know the details of her particular situation, I’ve run into this issue before.

Most companies interested in LinkedIn start a group about their company, then maybe a group about what they do. So if you’re an accounting firm, you start a group about accounting. The problem is that your prospective customers probably don’t go to LinkedIn looking for accountants to hang out with. They go looking for people like them.

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19 comments

3 Social Business Tools to Manage Your Customer Relationships

by Adam Helweh · September 24, 2010

You would be hard pressed to find an entrepreneur, business owner, or executive who would not agree that learning how to effectively manage customer relationships is a must if you want to be successful in business. This has been true long before the word “social” was on the tip of everyone’s tongue and is increasingly important due to the hyper-connected world we live in today. As a business owner myself I thrive on being able to build and maintain relationships with not only customers, but also people I may want to work with, refer or hire. Simply having a collection of connections in your address book doesn’t cut it. You need tools to help.

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17 comments

On Influence

by Tom Webster · September 23, 2010

I don’t watch a ton of TV, but I do have a few favorite shows. I love AMC’s new series, Rubicon. I watch a lot of Top Chef with my five-year old, because he likes cooking and I like Padma. I generally catch Bri-Wi when I’m home.

So here’s a test: I’m going to name five shows, and I want you to rank them in order of popularity. Ready?

NBC Nightly News
Top Chef
American Pickers
The Closer
Mad Men

Where would you go to find this information? Why, the folks at Nielsen, of course, who measure this sort of thing. Here’s what they had to say (ranked by estimated total audience for last week):

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20 comments

The Difference Between Craig’s List And Social Media

by Jason Falls · September 22, 2010

My wife probably thinks social media is something you need penicillin for. She only signed up for Facebook because I found out about her high school friend Erin’s second pregnancy two weeks before she did. She’s on Twitter because I wanted to reserve her name and be funny one night. Otherwise, my dear Nancy thinks social media keeps her husband from doing work around the house, makes her watch the kids by herself for 6-10 days a month and is nearing “intervention” status.

But this week she found Craig’s List.

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18 comments

The Importance of a Content Marketing Playground

by Andrew Hanelly · September 22, 2010

Trying a trick play for the first time in the Super Bowl is a risk most coaches—at least those who value their jobs—would never take. The stakes are too high. The world is watching. And a mistake could mean everything they’ve built comes crashing down in a few humiliating seconds.

The world of content marketing is no different, except the field in this case is your organization’s or client’s website. The risk, it seems, is just as high. So we cling to our best practices, we make our decisions based on research, and we quote statistics and case studies to justify our every move.

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